


Rose Gold

by CajunSpice714



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Single mom Rey, mentions of past relationships - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 02:05:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17013519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CajunSpice714/pseuds/CajunSpice714
Summary: A dark secret is revealed which sends Ben Solo heading for the hills, only to return to the girl he once loved, Rey.





	Rose Gold

 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155896046@N03/45611404104/in/dateposted-public/)

_I heard you told your friends that I'm just not your type_

_If that's how you really feel, then why'd you call last night?_

_You say all I ever do is just control your life_

_But how you gonna lie like that, how you gonna lie like that?_

 

He couldn’t believe her. He absolutely could not fucking believe her. _He_ was controlling? He was dictating her entire life? Who was she to accuse him of such things when _he_ was the one to turn down two jobs to move closer to her. _He_ was the one who dropped _EVERYTHING_ for her and moved five fucking hours away to live with her so she could live out her dream.

Ben slammed his hands on the steering wheel when he hit a red light, a loud angry sound ripping itself from his throat.

He had done everything she had asked, _everything_ to make her happy but when he had bought a ring and planned on getting down on one knee,he finally found out the truth. He had it all planned out from top to bottom. He was going to propose and then they were going to have the beautiful baby she was carrying and he was finally finally going to have a reason quit the job he hated.

Oh god did he ever find out the truth, but not from her, oh no. He had to find it out from his only friend in the godforsaken town she had dragged him to.

Hux had never given Ben a reason to not believe him, so he had promptly thrown his phone across the room when he had received Hux’s text, grabbed his wallet and his car keys and proceeded to Hux’s place of employment, a little bar on the other side of town that catered to the high and mighty of society; Lawyers, Government Officials, CEOs and the like.

He had stormed in, no preamble and no nonsense, and easily found the dark head of his girlfriend. The fallout had been massive, glasses had been thrown and the nastiest things had been said. She had thrown his mother’s ring at him and he had called her some bad names that had fit her pretty well in the slinky dress with too much skin showing. The blow that came afterward had split his lip but the blood from it had been spread across her fifty dollar pedicured feet and six hundred dollar shoes before he turned and stalked out of the bar, leaving the screaming woman to be held back by the ginger bartender.

The car behind him lays on the horn and Ben startles from his thoughts and accelerates at a speed that he knows is above the limit but he doesn’t care. He doesn’t know how long he’s been driving, or how long he’s been ruminating in the pain that he feels hollowing out the middle of his chest and all he can do, all he knows how to do, is drive.

Ben drives until the sun rises in the rear view mirror and he drives until he takes the familiar exit to the familiar streets. He drives until all of the anger is gone and all he feels is pain. He knows that more pain is going to come, he knows he's going to regret coming back here, but he does it anyway. When he pulls into the driveway he notices that her car is there, and he lets out a low breath, no longer questioning fate or any stupid god, no; he feels at peace with his decision to come back here and try to make things right.

 

* * *

 

“We-e are never ever ever getting back together!” Rey loves this song. It embodies how she feels and singing it at the top of her lungs with her friends was the perfect way to relax. The perfect way to solidify her decision to never go back to the controlling bastard that she had an on-and-off-again relationship with for the past year and a half.

She had dreams of forever --  what girl didn’t? Dreams of a beautifully planned white wedding; she thought that he would be the one. She had always thought that they would be forever. Their relationship had been amazing at best but when they fought they fought hard. Things were thrown, pictures broken and clothing burned. The police had been called more than once.

When she had found out she was pregnant, it had been an exciting day for her. She’d have something she had always wanted and desperately craved -- unconditional love. But now they had a newborn and she had had enough.  He was never home, and when he was home he wasn’t actually there, always on his phone or sleeping, and he had looked at her like she was the stupidest person in the world when she asked him to get up to tend to the baby after she had had a particularly bad night. They had argued and argued but he had always come back. Until one night, he didn’t.

She had been a desperate, sobbing mess when he had finally come home at 8 am, drunk as a skunk on a Tuesday. She had screamed and he had yelled and she had thrown the vase he had gotten her for their first anniversary and he had backhanded her so hard that she seen stars and that was the end. The end of everything.

She locked herself in the bedroom, packed her bag and the bag for the baby, walked past him into the nursery, gathered up the baby, and left. His pleas fell on deaf ears ,and she turned off her phone before filing a restraining order at the county attorney's office. After that she had gone to the bank, transferred all of the money from their joint account into a private one under Claire’s name, kissed her daughter’s dark head and drove home. Her daddy had welcomed her and Claire with open arms.

Two months later, Rey had hooked up with her high school friends to go out for a night of fun and drinks, which had lead to them singing obnoxiously to break up songs until their fun ended with a text message.

Rose had dropped Rey off and she had entered her home in confusion. “Daddy?”  Her father, a mountain of a man with a large scraggly beard, shushed her.

“C-Bee is down for the night, but I just got a phone call and I thought you’d want to be home for this.” Rey blinks up at her father in confusion when lights flash across the window and gravel crunches in the driveway.

“Daddy, if that’s Lloyd I’m calling the police.”

“It’s not baby, I told you I’d shoot that son of a bitch if he ever set foot on our property again.”

Rey’s laughter dies in her throat as a knock sounds at the door. She looks up at her father, who nods and gestures to the door. Tentatively Rey opens it and is startled when a tall, dark haired man tumbles to his knees at her feet, sobbing, arms wrapping around her waist,his face pressed into her stomach. “B-Benny?” Her fingers card through dark hair as she tries to coax the man into standing.

“Ben, come on. We can’t stand in the entryway, the draft could make Claire ill.” At the mention of Rey’s daughter Ben is on his feet, stepping in and pressing the door shut.

“Hi Uncle Chewie,” Ben says, giving a small wave that the bearded man returns

“I’mma get more wood,” Chewie grumbles, turning and heading towards the garage.

“Why are you here, Ben?” Rey asks, tears in her eyes as she cups his jaw in her hand, thumb brushing gently along the split in his lip.

“S-She lied to me, Rey.” Rey blinks up at him in confusion.

“The baby. The baby’s not mine. T-The only reason why I refused you when you split from Lloyd was because I thought the baby was mine and I-I thought…” Tears spill from his eyes again and he sucks the cut on his lip, jaw shifting as he tries to keep the sob from erupting from his throat. He fails, and Rey leads him to the couch.  “She lied to me for my money.” He collapses into the couch, gathering Rey into his strong arms, and she knows that even though he’s the one holding her, he’s gaining comfort from having her in his arms. “I was trying to do the right thing.”

“It’s okay, Ben,” she soothes, pressing her hands through his hair in attempt to relax him. “It’s okay. You’re here now, and that’s all that matters. You’re here and I’m here and we love each other and that’s all that matters.”

“I should have listened to you a long time ago. I wouldn’t have been with her and you wouldn’t have been messed up with Lloyd.” Ben presses his forehead to Rey’s collar bone and she sighs gently, kissing the top of his head.

“But then I wouldn’t have Claire,” she whispers.

Ben only nods.

“I suppose some good came out of all of this mess,” he whispers, and Rey hums gently against his hair.

They sit there like that until Chewie comes back carrying logs in his arms. Ben jumps up to help him while Rey goes to check on Claire.

When she returns from changing the baby, Ben and Chewie are sitting at the table talking quietly.

“What do you plan on doing now, boy?”

“I’ve talked to mom, she can get me on at her practice. We’ve closed all the accounts that have _her_ name on them and I’m going to get a condo near the office when I can get some more money coming in.” Rey is shocked that Ben had gone to his mother first. They hadn’t spoken in the entire three years that Ben and Bazine had been together.

“Where are you going to stay until then?” Chewie asks, and Ben shrugs.

“He could stay here,” Rey offers. “I’ll move into Claire’s room and he can have mine.”

Ben blinks up at her and Chewie shrugs his acceptance.

 

* * *

 

Their sleeping arrangement doesn’t last more than two weeks before Rey wakes, not to a fussing baby, but the creak of the floorboard as Ben walks around with Claire cuddled to his chest, talking quietly to her as she drinks contently from the bottle in his hand. He’s telling her all of his plans for the future, ones that include her and her momma, if her momma will have him. When Claire is satisfied and fast asleep in his arms, he stares at her for longer than necessary.Rey’s heart can’t help but squeeze painfully at the image of Ben cradling her dark-haired baby, and she pretends for one breathless moment that Claire is Ben’s and they’re a perfect little family. Her soft sob turns Ben’s attention to her, and she sniffles and sits up.

“I didn’t mean to wake you. I had gotten up to go to the bathroom and heard her start to fuss. I know you haven’t had much sleep lately and I just…. I wanted to pretend for a few minutes, I guess.” Rey can see Ben’s blush in the dim light and she laughs gently, brushing tears from her eyes as she scoots over to the wall.

“Put the baby down and come cuddle me, Ben Solo.”

He does just that, and from that night on at 10 pm he slides into her bed after tending to Claire.

Ben goes to work for his mother 3 days a week, working around Rey’s schedule as a waitress. Even though Chewie is retired, Ben still prefers to be home with Claire when Rey isn’t. And Rey couldn’t love him more for it. Except for the days that he has to be in court, he tends to Claire for most night feedings unless she absolutely demands her momma, and a routine forms without them realizing it.

 

* * *

 

A month later Ben gets a condo fifteen minutes from Rey and Chewie’s home. The day he moves in he relishes the quiet for about fifteen minutes, and then the loneliness sets in. He contemplates calling Rey, but he knows that the separation will be good for them. He’s still healing from heartbreak and he knows that he can’t depend on Rey for his happiness. He fights his loneliness until 4am when his phone rings.He sets aside his book to answer the phone with a curious “Hello?”

“Ben. Ben, she won’t stop crying.” Rey’s sobbing, hard, and Ben can hardly hear over the anguished wails of the infant.

“How long has she been crying?”

“I don’t know. A couple of hours.”

“Where’s your dad?”

“He and Han went on that fishing trip. Please. I don’t know what to do,” Rey hiccups, and Ben feels his heart break.

“Give me fifteen minutes.” He hangs up without saying goodbye and is out the door soon after.

Twenty minutes later Ben pulls into the drive of Rey’s home and doesn’t bother knocking, pushing open the door and slamming it shut behind him. This only makes Claire cry harder, which makes Rey cry harder. He sighs heavily, sweeping the wailing infant from her mother’s arms.

“Go to bed, go. I’ll take her for a while.” Rey looks up at him with wide wet eyes and hiccups again. He gathers her into one arm and presses a kiss to her warm forehead before shooing her away. “Go shower and go to bed. You being tired isn’t going to help either of you. Go sleep in your dad’s room and I’ll keep her in the nursery.”

When Rey is gone, Ben settles on the bed in the nursery with Claire . He drapes a blanket over his bare chest, realizing then that he’d forgotten a shoes AND a shirt. He wraps Claire up in the blanket, resting her on his chest and patting her back with thumps that aren’t soft, but aren’t hard either.

She’s still fussing an hour later when Rey comes in, rubbing her eyes. “I-I need to  try to feed her,” she whispers. Ben flushes at the wet spots spread across her white shirt. She scoops up the fussing baby up from Ben’s chest. He sits up and gathers Rey into his arms so she’s sitting in his lap, both of their arms cradling Claire as she finally, _finally_ quiets to nurse. After about five minutes Ben feels Rey relax in his arms, and chuckles when he notes that she’s fallen asleep. When Claire begins to fuss again, he helps Rey sleepily shift her to the other breast and watches as she zonks out again.

Claire finally falls asleep and Ben gathers her in his arms before draping a blanket over Rey. He readies the milk-drunk baby for bed and settles her into her crib, pressing a kiss to her dark curls before returning to tend to Rey. He gathers her in his arms, pressing a kiss to her forehead, before settling in for as long as Claire allows.

 

* * *

 

The pattern repeats for a week before Ben asks Rey to move in with him. They’ve finally realized that if Ben isn’t the one to feed her at 10 pm, Claire will stay awake the entire night squalling.

After another week, Rey agrees. She and Claire move into Ben’s condo the next day. They settle into a routine again, but this one includes more delicate touches, more kisses that wander lower and lower until they become proper kisses. Those kisses turn into wandering hands, and wandering hands become breathless nights and quiet laughter.

 

* * *

 

Claire’s first birthday comes on her first real Christmas,10 months after Ben’s return. She’s toddling around the condo and curious as can be, and Ben loves it. He places a small box in her hands and smiles, shooing her playfully. “Bring that to momma.”

Claire squeals and toddles her way to where Rey is wrapping presents. “Mumumumumum,” Claire giggles. A laugh of surprise comes from Rey as she bends down to scoop up her daughter and take the small present from her. “Is this for me?”

Claire squeals and pats her momma’s cheeks before turning and reaching for Ben who had followed her into the kitchen.

“It is,” he replies, taking Claire from Rey. When Rey opens the box she blinks in confusion.

 

* * *

 

 

“A pen?” Rey asks. Ben chuckles and nods before pulling an envelope from one of the kitchen drawers. He sets it in front of her before stepping away. Rey frowns as she slowly opens the envelope.

Her eyes gloss over the top of the papers before she reads the title, “Joint Petition for Adoption by Stepparent? Ben, what?” She turns around to find Ben standing behind her, holding Claire cradled on his hip with one arm while the other hand holds an open ring box out to her.

“Raegen Sunshine Kashyyyk, I’ve loved you since I was 8 years old. I’ve loved you your entire life, and I can’t imagine a life without you. I did it for a while and we both know how that turned out and I just… I want to do this the right way this time and make you mine forever. Will you marry me?” Rey stares at him for so long, tears welling in her eyes and falling down her cheeks, that Ben begins to look nervous.Rey realizes then that she never answered, and so she nods, shakily sniffling, as she wraps herself around her future husband and her daughter. She kisses him soundly, tears and snot and all, before pressing a kiss to Claire’s head and finally pulling away so Ben can put the ring properly on her finger.

“I love you too, Ben. Of course I’ll marry you,” she laughs through her tears. Claire makes her presence known with a sleepy coo and an eye rub that has Rey reaching for her.

“Sign the papers Rey. I’ll put her to bed.” Rey smiles to herself as she reads over the papers and signs in the appropriate spots.

 

_We could be timeless, we could be classic_  
_We could be stars, we could be rose gold, rose gold_  
_We could be diamonds, we could be an anthem_  
_We could be stars, we could be rose gold, rose gold_

  


**Author's Note:**

> Lyrics are from 'Lie' By NF, 'We Are Never Getting Back Together' by Taylor Swift, and Rose Gold by Pentatonix.


End file.
